What College Professors Check in the Academic References?

Referencing is an integral part of academic work. If you are an international student, remember, you must submit your assignments with a proper reference page at the end of the paper, and in-text citation within the text.

The college professors of US, UK, Australia and Canada want their students to comply by the referencing conventions. 

Why is Referencing Necessary?

Often newly arrived international students ask this question. When you complete your assignment by using online sources such as websites and Google Scholar, you must give a reference as part of your academic responsibility.

In other words, referencing is the way to acknowledge the contribution of the author’s work that you use to complete your papers. Even if you borrow an idea from someone else’s researched work, you need to add references.

If you do not add text in your academic paper despite using online sources, your essay will fall under plagiarism, and your professor may give you an F. A paper with a complete reference list. In-text citation fulfils the academic requirements and would endorse your academic honesty. 

 As a college or university student, you cater to various assignments, and for that professors recommend you to carry out research work. Searching scholarly articles for your academic paper broadens your view, and you can develop a critical approach.

You can have hundreds of ideas through online sources. When you cite them according to the rules and regulations, you will be regarding the intellectual property of the scholars who had conducted that research. Referencing is the evidence of your research, and that is why professors of international colleges and universities instruct their students to submit accurately and adequately referenced papers.

As a result of citing information correctly, your work would look persuasive. 

What is the Referencing and Citation Style?

Generally, referencing style refers to including author’s name, date, a company of publication, the title of journal/book, or DOI (Digital Object Identifier).

The in-text citation refers to citing the source within the written content, and that includes adding the author’s last name, publication year or page number. APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago styles are in practice commonly. However, ASA, AMA, and Vancouver are the other referencing styles. 

APA Referencing Style

APA stands for American Psychological Association, and it is generally used for Psychology, Education and Sciences assignments. The in-text citation must correspond with the reference at the end of the page in the reference list. The reference list should be in the alphabetical order with Reference heading at the centre of the bottom sheet.

In-text citations are in the brackets with the author(s) last name, and the year of publication, for example (Smith, 2006), multiple authors: (Smith, Edwards, 1995), more than three authors (Smith et al. 1995). The students need to mention the page number in the in-text citation in case of the direct quotation, for example (Smith, 2006, p. 23), in case of multiple page numbers: (Smith, 2006, pp. 23-25). 

Also, there is a proper format of the header: Running head followed by the topic of the paper in full caps on the first title page, and on rest of the pages, the only title of the subject is written in all caps. Usually, professors encourage their students to use scholarly sources, but URLs are also part of references. 

MLA Referencing

MLA stands for Modern Language Association, and the style is in use by the Humanities. The latest version is the 8th edition, which was released in 2016; this version is slightly different as compared to the previous styles.

The in-text citation of MLA style contains the last name and the page number from which you paraphrase or include direct quotation, for example (Smith 56). Similarly, for multiple authors, the last name of each appears in the round bracket, and in case of multiple page numbers (Smith 56-58).

URLs are also the part of MLA referencing. Works Cited page is the last page of the paper, which includes the references with the sources of information in alphabetical order. 

Chicago Style Referencing

In Chicago or Turabian Style, footnotes or endnotes are included to add the reference of information in the text. A superscript number is placed at the end of the passage or the sentence, which you paraphrase. The number of citations must be in the sequential order.

Each amount of the superscript must correspond to the footnotes. If you paraphrase different sentences from one source, you need to include the sequence number of reference at the end of that sentence as a superscript; and this is cross-referencing. 

Harvard Style Referencing

Harvard is another popular style of referencing, and in that author(s) last name and date of publication appear within the text as an in-text citation.  

Is Adding References or in-text Citation a Difficult Task?

Adding references and in-text citation is not ambiguous at all. Initially, you may think it’s slightly complicated, but some practice will lead you to perfection. In the word file, there is an option of all these referencing styles under References. Alternatively, some auto-generators can make your task easy.

If you start practising today, within a few days, you will learn to include a Reference page and in-text citation in a quick time. So, if you just started your college as a new international student, submit your assignment with accurate referencing to make a good impression on your professor.

Usually, teachers let you know as to what referencing style they need such as APA, MLA and others, and at times they give you a choice to use whichever method you want. 

Conclusion

As a student, it is your academic responsibility to include a reference to the source from which you have paraphrased the information or borrowed the idea. If you use someone’s researched work to complete your assignment, and do not cite that, it is plagiarism.

Professors expect their students to demonstrate academic honesty and mention all the references accurately. College professors prefer to give good grades to correctly and adequately referenced papers. APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago/Turabian are the popular referencing styles. 

expect their students to demonstrate academic honesty and mention all the references accurately. College professors prefer to give good grades to correctly and adequately referenced papers. APA, MLA, Harvard and Chicago/Turabian are the popular referencing styles.